Ok guys and gals,
The way this legislation was put down in America was by phoning their elected Congressmen non-stop and this freaked the Congressmen out. It's pretty simple really. We should get as many people as possible to phone our elected represetatives and ask them to oppose this legislation. Let's get this up and running. Anyone have a link for some TD's websites which would have their office numbers? I'll look for some. P.S. I don't think an online petition would have as much impact as people actually ringing the TDs' offices.

Implementation of legislation to provide for injunctions for copyright owners in certain circumstance

Issued : Thursday 22 December, 2011

The Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock TD announced today that the Government will be responding with legislation to the High Court Judgment in the case of EMI and Others Vs UPC.

In his judgement Mr Justice Charleton held that he was constrained by the wording of the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and could not grant an injunction to prevent infringement of copyright against an information service provider in the context of a transient communication and he stated that Ireland had not fully transposed the relevant EU Directive(s).

Minister Sherlock stated 'the Government is proposing to introduce a Statutory Instrument, to redress the situation highlighted by Justice Charleton, by providing for injunctions for copyright owners against intermediaries whose services are used to infringe their copyright.

In granting such injunctions the Courts must take account of Court of Justice of the European Union Judgements. They require that a fair balance be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order and the principle of proportionality. That would include, inter alia, the protection of the fundamental rights of individuals who are affected by such measures, the freedom to conduct a business enjoyed by operators such as Internet Service Providers, the protection of private data and right of freedom of expression and information'.

The Minister went on to say that he hopes that the legislation will be introduced by the middle of January 2012.

The SOPA and PIPA bills were halted in the States due to politicians being bombarded with phone calls of opposition to the bills. Here is the phone numbers of all the Irish TD's currently in government so that you can contact them to voice your opposition to the ACTA and irish SOPA bills